Stargate Aurora Episode 3:Phantasm
by The Legate
Summary: The Aurora investigates the appearance of an Alteran ship that has re-entered the galactic plane travelling on the edge of hyperspace. Matters worsen when communication is lost with the team on board the Alteran ship and power is lost on board the Aurora.
1. Chapter 1

**Stargate Aurora**

**Episode III: Phantasm.**

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

* * *

The drowsiness and headache wore off as he opened his eyes to find that he was still wearing his uniform from the last shift, as has happened in the past. He rubbed his forehead as the lights came on in sequence in his quarters.

As captain of the ship he had the largest quarters and he used them well. The outside room was a general area however he used it as an office while the inside rooms were pre assembled as a bedroom and a bathroom unit.

Renatus pulled his legs from off of the beds warm, cotton like cover and to his own embarrasment realised that he hadn't even pulled off his shoes before dragging himself into bed.

"Dammed it." He said in annoyance and stood up and walked over to the door to the outer office slowly, each step excruciatingly slowly from the lack of circulation developed from sleeping with tight shoes on.

Almost instantaneously as he wiped his hand across the shining blue crystal on the side of the wall the bronze trinium enhanced steel door opened and the lights within revealed an office of a man with very few possessions.

His computer screen activated immediately as he stepped into the room to reveal the sorry piece of information that the Tooadillius league was cancelled due to national emergency yet again, for thirty six seasons in a row now. Other information passed through the stream on his screen as well; crew logs that needed to be submitted to the High Council, status reports from the various outposts around the galaxy and beyond and a thousand other useful things in the business of running vessels.

Renatus sighed as news of the battle over Signis Ignatiallis went, six corvettes had been lost to the wraith...seven hundred and sixty people were gone. He wondered how many had been lucky enough to Ascend, he didn't imagine it could have been more than a dozen or so. The old man lifted up his right arm and groaned in anticipation of the varying temperatures of the water in the bathroom's shower facility

Pulling off the thin cream-leather chest armour that captains such as himself wore and then his shirt. Renatus sighed to himself as he realised that age was still keeping up and the beginning of the fold on his stomach was still growing more than one in his position would want it to.

Renatus scrunched his uniforms creamy white shirt and threw it against the rooms automatic door while he left the leather segmented chest piece upon his office chair. He cracked his knuckles and pulled off the wrist guards he were also part of his uniform, and set them upon the table. Hopeful that the spray would be warm today, Renatus made his way to his private wash room...

...........

Trebal passed numerous officers on her way to the Captain's quarters some of them nodded, smiled, looked away or simply reacted using micro-gestures. From her experience most humans didn't seem to notice the tiny expressions that her kind gave to each other as they passed, a lip shudder, a twitch, a tiny wink...to a human it appeared that her kind were ignoring each other but for those such of her it was obvious that more could be said by two Alterans passing than an hour of two human beings conversing amongst themselves.

She crossed the corridor and passed the two security officers guarding the Captains quarters on the end of the deck. She didn't say anything as she did, she really didn't need to...not with the large report that she held between her right arm and torso as well as the large tray of food balanced precariously in her hands.

It was a magic act to get the food tray to balance in her arms while she waved her palm over the doors blue crystal lock but through sheer tenacity (and quite a bit of luck) she managed to ease her way inside

As she entered the room she almost tripped up on the captain's used shirt but managed to regain her balance of the tray and with an irritated grunt,kicked the shirt back across the room to the far side and smiled with satisfaction as the sound of the fabric hitting the trinium wall reverberated throughout the room.

She looked around the quarters and wondered what the Captain had been like when he was married, if he had been any less of a slob. She kicked the cream shirt to the side of the room and made for the man's desk. She then placed the food tray down and looked around the room.

She sighed to herself as she read that the league had been cancelled yet again. She understood that during wartime it was necessary to conserve resources but still...she wanted to see the silver wings get beat again, at least once before she announced that she was planning to teach Van'tu on board the ship as a form of exercise.

The knowledge of the six corvettes effected her more than she had thought that something of that nature possibly could. The Wraith and her kind had been at war since before she was born, she was a post war born; one of their kind that had never known peace and yet, it still effected Trebal more than she thought it would...she sobbed to herself then made her way through the room.

"Strange, I wonder where he is at this time in the morning?" She asked herself as she wiped the singular tear that had gotten past her defences and had trickled down her cheek. She quickly moved forward through the Captain's quarters.

She moved her way to the bathroom and placed her hand over the rooms crystalline locking mechanism, she was half way down the blue streak of crystals that were synonymous with Alteran doors across the universe when suddenly...

"**OPEN THIS DOOR TREBAL AND YOU'LL PAINT THE RESULTS OF THE LAST FIVE MILLION YEARS OF TOOADILLIUS FIRST LEAGUE RESULTS ONTO THE HULL!**" She heard through the rooms intercom monitors and backed off and raised her arms in the air in the manner of caught thieves.

"How did you know I was here, sir?" She asked with a smile.

"Everyone else onboard would have messaged me on the intercom before coming into my private quarters." Captain Villgans said through the intercom. In the background Trebal could crystal clearly hear the sound of a high pressure spray of the Alteran cleansing system.

Embarrassed, Trebal sat down at her traditional side of the desk still laughing at herself. Eventually the Captain appeared from the bathroom fully dressed sans body armour and sweat guards. She smiled to him as he walked over to her and sat down at the desk. He briefly read over the data stream and then switched off the computer screen.

"Good morning Trebal." He said as he pulled his plate off of the tray and smiled at the sight of the twinned eggs.

"Good morning sir, did you have a good rest?" She asked as she picked up her own plate off the tray.

"Yes, it was very good, thank you very much Trebal." He cut the eggs up. "Although, that turn at 6:43 made me accidently bite my tongue in my sleep."

"Yes, although in my case it tossed me out of my bed...I believe that that Verro must have forgotten the old adage, Faster than right-"She replied, only stopping when the Captain interrupted her.

"No left or right." He interrupted her with a smile. The two officers conversed on things to tell the crew about the destruction of the six corvettes, latest ship gossip etc. They also conversed about the upcoming mission and of the repairs to the ship.

............

Verro and Kiana, commanders of the ship during the third watch sat together at a steel table in the Aurora's mess hall. Though both were tired and clearly showed the exhaustion on their faces as the smiled at each other and ate.

"...I agree. The Aurora definitely needs that upgrade if we are to continue." Verro said as he took a deep drink out of his silver and blue kafe's mug. His faced shrivelled up as the warm brown liquid travelled down his oesophagus and it's after effect.

"So..." She said. "Are you going to do it?" Kiana asked with an evil grin.

"Are you nuts? Do you have any idea what he'd do to me if I asked the captain if we could have chairs on the bridge?"

"It can't be that bad, just drop it in during a conversation once or something."

"The last officer that tried to have chairs put in the bridge was transferred out the next do you think you got the job as CAG?" The two officers laughed in the middle of the crowd that occupied mostly empty room sans two dozen or so empty benches besides the ones occupied by groups of officers. A quietness settled into the room as the whole group seemed to eat at once.

Chef put out a new plate onto the constantly warm surface of the counter for the crew to eat, from where he sat Verro couldn't see if it was toast or eggs but he guessed that it would be Toast, it was easier to make and chef had a lot to cook.

Suddenly Karyan and Gun Captain Adalyx entered the mess hall at the same time. Verro and Kiana tried their best to stare at the as they entered, collected their breakfast and then sat down at the far end of the mess hall.

"When did they get back from Katara?" Kiana asked as she cracked her egg with the edge of her knife.

"Last night." Verro took another gulp from the silver cup. "We even took an orbital Astria Porta so that they could come aboard."

"Alright for some, when I had to do my rotation in the Spector Millites I had to wait on the planet for seven and a half hours while the Aurora came in range." Kiana grumbled as she swallowed the first bite of her egg.

Verro chuckled. "You're a pilot; couldn't you have borrowed a gateship to come aboard?"

"They're space ships; they don't let you rent them." She said with a grin as she looked at Adalyx and Karyan from across the room. She lowered her voice to conspiratorial levels as she said. "They're sitting together."

Verro turned slightly and watched out of the corner of his eyes. "What? Do you think anything happened while they were on the tour of duty?" As Verro asked, Kiana's face shrivelled up...possibly she was imagining the circumstances and subsequent events of those two could get together or maybe she was simply repulsed from the idea.

"No!" Kiana raised her voice just t little too much and quickly shirked down to avoid attention. " I mean...well..._maybe, possibly_? ?" She seemed unsure of herself as she thought about it and shook her head to clear her mind. " No, that would never happen...I mean, you know those Great House types, they never mate with anyone who's not from one of the houses."

Verro raised his eyebrows and resisted laughing. "I wasn't talking about _that_...I was asking if you thought that they might have been attacked or something planet side." To her embarrassment Kiana's cheeks turned slightly red. "And that's a popular myth."

Feeling the sudden need to change the subject, Kiana pressed forward. "Has anything come through the data stream yet?"

Verro, ever the tease decided to press on with the questions. "What, about the mating habits of the members of the Great Houses, possibly? I haven't taken a look on any Chi-Chi-Chi streams yet this morning..." Kiana shot him an evil stare as the joke failed to make her laugh to his own displeasure.

"Not funny Verro."

"I know, I blame the food." Verro said with a sly grin.

Officers came and went, the numbers of people in the mess hall finned out steadily as the chronometer went forward.

"So what do you think the council have sent us to look for?" Kiana said after a long protracted silence.

"It could be anything, a piece of wreckage...a rogue comet that was knocked out of orbit due to a supernova billions of years ago." Both Lanteans frowned at each other. In truth neither felt right about the coming mission, every fibre of their bodies told them that something was wrong. But as General Hippaforalkus would say, Commence Operation: This can not conclude in a favourable manner.

* * *

Kiana had been called to the bridge and she walked the ships corridors with trepidation. Technically as a part of another service the ships CAG was rarely called to the bridge, most of the CAG's general communication with the senior staff came through messages sent through the data stream or through conversations with Verro. She passed men and women whom she had barely seen in the three and a half years that she had been aboard the vessel.

As she walked into the bridge through the large open door that lay at the back of the great open room it dawned on her of how large the room was and how busy it could get. She noted at least twelve officers about the room working at various stations; some she recognised like Laurentia working at the navigation console or Selmonkiv at the Life Sciences section.

"Sir, reporting as ordered." She was surprised to find that the Captain's chair had giro's in its base that allowed him to face her and she was more surprised to find that he had a half eaten carved and skinned pineapple in his hand! He took a bite out of it before replying to her.

"Nice to see you on the bridge, Commander of the Air-Group." She stood at attention at the back of the room, while Trebal and the captain dissected her with their eyes.

"Sir, may I speak freely." Kiana said as she stood in attention.

"Yes, second Captain." The Captain replied.

"Where did you get that pineapple from, sir?" The Captain and Commander Trebal looked at each other in puzzlement then continued to dissect her.

"The hydroponics bay, Second Captain." Captain Villgans said simply. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason sir, I was just getting hungry." Unexpectedly the Captain smiled warmly in response. "Sir, you called me to the bridge." She added.

"Yes, we're about to drop out of hyperspace and due to the drop off points relatively close proximity to the galactic core we can't get reliable sensor telemetry, not even Atlantus' sensors can get a clear reading in the area which means..."

"...That means that when we drop out of hyperspace we could drop out a meter from the ground floor of a planet or close enough to the heart of a gas giant planet that inertial dampeners become little more than weights." She said clearly.

Captain Villagans raised an eyebrow. "In a word ,Yes."

"Then in that case you'll need the best pilot you can find on board, just in case you need to get out of gravity well in a pinch." He smiled again. "Sir, I do have to warn you though. According to current regulations it is illegal for a CAG to pilot a Classis ship."

Trebal and Captain Villgans looked at each other the same way that siblings do, like there is a private joke between them and they are only just realising that the whole world has never noticed it before.

"We feel..." The Captain began, only for Trebal to finish his statement.

"...That in the face of impending death by any number of universal phenomenon the rules, this time...can be bent."

The Captain stood up from the black and silver trinium chair and the great light dimmed as he did. He moved over to Kiana's side and smiled at her. She gulped and then sat down on the monumental chair, as the mental control began to activate she realised that she could now feel so much more than she did even when she was connected to her own gate ships.

She could feel the wind of hyperspace rush over her, she could smell the dark matter between the stars...she could hear gamma rays and taste the cold dust particles on her tongue as if she were literally licking it. It was no wonder; she thought that when most children attempt an interface for the first time they almost all normally forced to vomit.

In her mind's eye she could see the raw data and the power of the ship being transferred through her brain in real time.

"Kiana, still there?" Captain Villgans said to her.

"Yes sir." She spoke with an open throat, the way that people do when they have been running out in the ice cold of winter. "I'm still here, its just...the Aurora has many more systems than the standard Gate Ship does."

The Captain moved off to the centre of the room and gently tapped his com badge, all throughout the ship the various speaker systems activated and the various monitors followed suit.

"This is the Captain, we are about to exit hyperspace. Will all crew members please remember that due to the relatively close location of our destination to the galactic core we have very few sensor and as a result have no idea of what the situation we are jumping into. Keep your distance from the walls, have a nice day." He tapped the badge again and the ships speaker systems deactivated. They could hear the crew moving to their stations, even through the trinium enhanced bulkheads of the ship.

"Captain, we're fifteen seconds away from recommended co-ordinates." Laurentia said from her console.

"Thank you sergeant, please give Second Captain Kiana An eight second count down." He replied.

8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...

The warm blue and black swirling mass of hyperspace was torn away as the massive, powerful light of a hyper-giant star blinded everyone on the bridge. Officers threw themselves to the floor as they were temporarily blinded by the baleful blue light of the star.

By Kiana's will alone the chair spun in the opposite direction of the ships window, she covered her eyes and leaned down in a bid to deny them any light. Suddenly the CAG felt another mind interface with the ships systems and she felt flashes of another person's life; their thoughts, their feelings. Only two real thoughts were indistinguishable from the rabble of sensory information 'Heads up Display' and 'Infa-red'.

The bridge went dark.

Slowly as she regained her sight Kiana noticed the Captain standing over the command chair, his face was slightly discoloured and his pupils seemed to be shrunken but otherwise he seemed to be uninjured. Slowly she rotated the command chair to bring more of the bridge into view. Laurentia and Selmonkiv both lay on the floor with their hands over their eyes, at least a dozen and a half other officers were doing the same; Trebal lay behind one of the consoles while Verro and a few other were hunched over.

"Report." Captain Villgans said as Kiana surveyed the bridge.

"We're all here. There's some slight scorching on the outer transparent trinium shielding but its nothing that can't easily be replaced." Kiana read from the ships datastream that was going through her mind. He rubbed his eyes continuously.

"How are you sir?" She asked. The captain opened his eyes and waved his hands left to right.

"I'm not blind, if thats what you're asking Kiana. What about you Trebal?" Trebal tried to stand up but simply fell back to the floor.

"I'm just surfing on the ovum side of the quantum filament while the Venator apotheosises his left horse shoe Captain." Trebal said with a girlish giggle...clearly she was a Astria Porta short of a gate network at the moment. The captain rolled his eyes and groaned as the figures flashed and danced about his field of vision.

"Someone call the medical staff to the bridge." The captain said as he moved over to Kiana. "And remind me to have the man that decided to put a giant open window on the bridge sent to a planet on the edge of the universe infested by giant worms."

* * *

Karyan made her way to the bridge accompanied by Seevua and Beroge; both highly trained medical assistants and Kion, a fellow physician. As the other three walked towards the bridge they discussed the mundane; their relatives, their hobbies etc. Even though she was their superior she dared not to silence them, to focus their minds on the task at hand...she was still the outsider and until she became one of them they wouldn't listen to her.

As they entered the bridge Karyan was taken aback by how organised they were, even after direct solar contact...some of them were slightly burned but most just had red faces, nothing a cream wouldn't fix. Verro moved towards her in the doorway slowly.

"It's all right Karyan, it doesn't look like anyone was hurt as bad as we thought we were." Verro said calmly. "But Trebals pretty shaken up."

"Seevus, Kion-take her to the med bay." Almost on cue the two medical personnel moved over to the hunched over commander, brought her to her feet and moved her out of the room. The two second captains watched with great apprehension as they did, it was obvious even from here that the commander was nauseous. "What the hell happened?"

"We dropped out of hyperspace facing a blue hyper giant star...and we got sunburnt." Kiana said from the pilots chair. In the front of the ship Captain Villgans was standing close to the view screen which had been transformed into a giant HUD which was dominated by a huge infrared scan of the star and the ship...Oh Ascended Ancestors!

"Incompertus vas, noo ani lanteus. Est bellus navis Aurora. Tua..."

"Captain..." Karyan interrupted the captain part way through his message to the other vessel. He stepped off the isomorphic communications platform and looked to her.

"What is it Karyan?" He was close to shouting, not only had he been ordered to this damned place but now his first contact with an unknown alien race had been interrupted by a member of his own crew.

"Sir, their no need...It's one of ours."

The ship on the view screen clearly showed all the hallmarks of an early first republic starship...it was shaped much in the same fashion as the chevrons on the original Astria Porta, the ones that had once dotted the universe before scientific advanced had warranted the new network in the Avalon Galaxy and then in turn the even more modern one in the Pegasus Galaxy.

...............

On board the ancient ship, deep within the ancient hallways and far from reach of the stale old air and in the cold darkness; in a frozen pool of one of the water holds that had once been able to sustain a crew of little less than five hundred a creature of pure rage, instinct and hunger stirred. ..


	2. Ships Logs: Renatus Villgans

6Author: Captain Renatus Villgans, 4162,321,236

Date: 1/09/ 65,321, 020

Title: Ships log

Purpose: To provide future generations of knowledge of the war.

Thoughts of the Day: The next time we dock will someone please remember to download ship designs older than the founding the city of Atlantus into the main computer, please?

From now on make solar protection cream a must have when dropping out of hyperspace when sensor readings aren't available.

Proof reader: Commander Trebal (Muergan S'renala, Captain.)

Cross file: /Documents/Ships logs/Personal logs.

Log Begins...

I apologise if this log seems short compared to the ones submitted by my subordinates in the coming days however, I have one question to ask you. How the abyssus does the High Council expect me to do my job if they will not even give me all the relevant data? Let me explain for those of you, children or politicians that aren't familiar with the Operations of a Pegasus Class Warship...

The Aurora, like all the other ships of her class and indeed ALL the ships in the current Lantean Classis as well as the Gateships currently manned by the Trierarchus corps runs a data program called SIP, Ship Identification Protocol and what this program is, is that it is an archive of every vessel EVER scanned. Now, you would think, wouldn't you that this program would have data on our own damned ships!

Remind me, whoever reads this log...whether it be in a hundred years or fifteen minutes to find whoever programmed the Aurora's database and break his nose!

...I apologise.

Following a joint meeting with the senior staff I have decided to send a team consisting of Karyan, ships physician, Sergeants Laurentian and Twilingius, Major Nimroth and Hephisialias: ships chief engineer. Karyan has experience dealing with technology from this era as well as life sciences while Hephisialas knows a lot...just a lot. Most likely the ship will be depreasurised and as a result I've allotted five Heracaleus class environmental suits.

I decided not to authorise the use of the heavier Venator Class environmental suits as we only have seven aboard and am not likely to be issued more until the ships mores at a dry dock, Ascended Ancestors I hope Taranis has spares...

Captain Renatus Villgans, signing off.


	3. Chapter 2

Karyan felt uncomfortable in the Heracaleus class environmental suit that she had been allotted. She had never felt comfortable in a vacuum, not even when from when she was an ascended being and now the thick heavy suit only made it feel worse for her.

Worse still, the suits HUD blocked out most of the visible light and replaced it with infrared and gamma ray readings that someone had decided would be useful for this mission. She comforted herself with the constant reassurance that if she did actually see the full visible light spectrum she would quickly be blinded by the full majesty of the blue hypergiant, even with the suits natural polarization of light that was inherent that came with its design materials.

"Are you alright?" Hephisialis asked her. She cursed herself for exhaling loud enough to be heard over the subspace radio.

"Yes." It couldn't be seen through the environmental suits pitch black reflective visor but she smiled at him. "It's just that this is the first time that I've been in vacuum since zero gravity training."

"Oh..." The chief engineer said apologetically through the hoarse crackling of the radio caused by the ships proximity to the super massive star."Good thing you're not an engineer ma'am. This is the third time I've worn one of these things this week."

"We can get nominal sensor telemetry now that we're closer to the ship, but it's going to be sketchy. Do you want me to transfer it over to your HUD ma'am?" Nimroth interrupted the two officers through their channel.

"Yes, go ahead." Karyan replied.

"I'd like to have a look as well, Major." Hephisialis added.

Suddenly a three dimensional image of the ship appeared on the inside of their HUDs. It had the semi triangular shape that many of the ships of the early first republic shared as well as the command pyramid but it appeared to be slightly more advanced than the ship Karyan had expected it to be.

What pitiful energy was coming from the ship suggested that it had a hyperdrive engine, most definitely not nearly as fast as the one onboard the Aurora but it was still a leap and a bound above the faster than light engine that was used on ships in antiquity such as The Destiny or the Yashuman.

"It looks like it was built just after the invention of hyperspace drives, but before the renaissance in ship design in the one hundred thousand and seventh millenium." Hephisialas said over the radio to Karyan's amazement.

"What do you expect to find on board Ma'am?" Nimroth spoke as the gateship skirted the underside of the vessels hull.

"Based on its extreme age? Very little I'd expect...The ships at this point weren't designed for long term habitation." Karyan said over the subspace radio. "And besides...After the countless centuries of deep space travel, I wouldn't expect our kind to last that long...even if they did turn it into a generational ship." The cockpit went silent as they approached the end of the huge chevron shaped vessel, its form stripped of beauty by the visible light filter that was attached to the HUD.

"There." Karyan said as she lifted up her heavily armoured arm and pointed at the holographic screen that covered the gateship's front window. "It looks like an internal hanger."

"You sure, sirs?" Nimorth asked them both.

"Yes." They replied in unison. As they spoke the small Gateship dodged monolithically huge jets of incinerating fluorescent blue plasma and hard radiation as it slowly brought itself closer to the ancient space craft.

...............

Captain Villgans sat uneasily on the bridge of the Aurora as he saw the red images on screen clash and merge against the intense blue of the hyper-giant. In his left hand sat the remains of the data pad that he had recorded his log onto, that small device that consisted of two smaller computers and a small, mobile central core was now broken up...most likely to never return to its former configuration while to the right of his right foot lay the remains of the eaten pineapple, a few pieces of skin and parts of a shell.

"What do you think is happening over there Trebal?" He asked the blonde woman that stood to his right her blonde hair bounced lightly as she moved to respond.

"I don't know sir." She said with apprehension as the Captain Villgans leaned forward out of his chair and placed the data core onto the Aurora's deck plating. "But I'm willing to bet, not much yet..."

"I can't shake the feeling that we shouldn't be here, what about you?"

"I know what you mean sir, it's like...it's like we're in the wrong place."

"Hmmnn..." The captain mused as he watched the solar flares dance on the surface of the star.

"What sir?" Trebal asked as behind them, Verro was busy trying to co-ordinate the various departments.

"Commander Trebal, you have the bridge. I am going to go inspect the Aurora's hanger bays." The Captain leaned over to pick up the pieces of pineapple. stood up and moved off to the side while Trebal stood back down into the chair. They nodded at each other before the Captain made his way through the great trinium arch that lay at the bac of the room.

With a nod Trebal gestured to Verro who stood at the life sciences console. He nodded and the two officers knew exactly what the other was thinking...they both knew that the captain was worried.

* * *

The gateship's rear bay door fell to the floor slowly slowly as the vessel settled into the still decompressed hanger bay slowly silently, the lack of atmospheric pressure made sure of that. One by one the Lanteans disembarked from the small silvery craft. Sergeant Laurentian stepped onto the deck first, followed by Twilingius, Nimroth and then Hephisialas and Karyan. Each one still worse the thick Heracaleus class environmental suit that protected them from decompression, extreme cold and relative extreme heat.

"What the abyssus?" Karyan said as she stepped onto the Ancient Alteran's deck and noticed that it was covered with a strange gelatinous, multi coloured material. She bent down and let some of it seep between her gloved fingers. Hephisialas turned around to face her and ran a scanning device over her hand. He ran the scan at least thrice to make sure.

"It's...air."

"What?" Laurentian asked with a surprised tone over the subspace radio.

"Yes, its Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon with trace elements...this stuff wouldn't be out of place in your lungs."

"Then why is it...gooey?" Karyan asked.

"We've been using machines to purify air since before we first started to launch ourselves into space....I suppose it's theoretically possible that the gasses were separated and then cooled enough that they liquefied but...it is highly implausible."

"I don't like this." Twilingius spoke coarsely as he bent down, let some of the material run through his fingers and then throw it back down to the hard, cold floor.

"Neither do I, can anyone get the Aurora on the com?" Nimroth spoke through the radio Each one of the team checked the subspace radio's but each one only received static in reply.

"It must be the hypergiant." Hephisialis said as he tapped his helmet once again.

"What do you think we should do, ma'am?" Nimroth asked Karyan who then thought to herself for a moment as she considered the size of the ship and the amount of people that were in the group.

"Hmmm...Twilingius and Laurentian, you two inspect the rest of the ship...see if you can find out what happened to the rest of the crew. Nimroth and Hephisialas will come with me and attempt to regain communications with the Aurora. Everyone, if you find something report it in; don't fire unless it threatens you first but at the first sign of trouble make for the gateship...wait three minutes then leave. Those of us that are left will make for an airlock, activate their locator beacons and wait to be picked up by the gateship or by the Aurora." She said to the assembled group. "The ships composition isn't that different than the Aurora's so we should be able to keep communication active."

"What about the outside? Surely if we leave the confines of this ship with just our suits on we'll suffer radiation poisoning which will blanket our locator beacons."

"We'll step through that event horizon when we come to it." Karyan said almost without thinking quickly.

* * *

The corridors shared the most basic principles in common with the hallways in Atlantus and the Aurora but still, they were far different. There was less space and the colouring was far darker, far closer to the blue side of the spectrum. Even in the sparse lighting that had survived in this place in the millions of years since the ship was launched they could see that much.

Twilingius lead the pair through the corridors of the lonely vessel, his force rifle pointed straight ahead while Laurentian took up the rear, and settled the footprints in the 'liquid air' as they made them, his right hand firmly entrenched into the 'goo' while his left hand hovered over his force baton...both men stepped in perfect harmony to try to not to pump into each other.

"So Lara said that I either should start to commit and propose Conventio Manu or she'll transfer off the Aurora to another ship or maybe go back to Atlantus or Elyssia." Laurentian said over the subspace radio as they went through the ship. In his suit Twilingius rolled his eyes to himself as he settled the 'goo'.

"You don't suppose you could be quieter do you?"

"Sorry, I just needed to vent."

"You need to vent? You go see the ships councillor; this is neither the time nor the place _Ancestors_; how do you stay alive during live combat?" Twilingius replied angrily as they continued to walk randomly through the corridors of the strange, arrow headed vessel.

"Oh, _that's_ different." Laurentian said with an emphasis as they crossed into the main hallway of the forked corridor. "I think of your pathetic firing score and I can't help but laugh."

Twilingius suddenly rose in a fit of anger to stare the shorter man down who in return turned his face to the corridor that they were walking through to look into Twilingius' face however before he could expose his compatriot to the horror of decompression his eyes were suddenly drawn to the object that forced him to stop in his tracks.

"What the Abyssus is the matter with you?" Laurentian exclaimed as he looked into Twilingius' eyes that shone with amazement.

"Twilingius...turn around, just...just turn around." He did so as implored and like Laurentian he turned to shock and amazement.

"We should report this in."

"Yes we should."

......

The three Alterans cautiously entered the ships command bridge. In the centre of the room a huge column stood from the floor to the ceiling that highly resembled an apple core. Karyan immediately made for the apple core console while Hephisialis inspected the antiquated technology whilst Nimroth stood back and inspected a console on the other side of the room. He waved his hand over the ancient dust ridden interface to no avail, again and again he attempted this but each time it failed to illicit a response from the screen.

"There's something wrong with this terminal, I think the computer network has been totally corrupted." Nimroth grumbled after he gave up trying to get the screen to activate the ancient machine. In her suit, Karyan smiled.

"Did you learn nothing in maturia?" Karyan replied as she pressed any one of a dozen buttons that sat on the metallic console. The major jumped as his as well as the other consoles throughout the ship suddenly activated. "The technology on this vessel predates most of the technology you're used to...gene interface, hyperspace drive, drone weapons, potentia...This ship has none of them."

"How did it travel the galactic void? Terre is three and a half million light years from here..."

"This ship does have a hyperdrive, but many ships of this period did not. Faster than Light, but not through hyperspace is a very crude method of travel...and a dangerous one as well. This ship must have been very important to the people who built it to warrant the hyperdrive engine being installed." Karyan said distantly as more and more ship systems came online.

"Ma'am, there's something you need to see down here." Sergeant Laurentian suddenly interrupted over the subspace radio.

"There are a lot of things I have to see Sergeant I suggest you be more descriptive if you seek my opinion." Karyan replied.

"You really should take a look at this ma'am, there's an Astria Porta down here ma'am...its connected to several devices that I don't recognise." The sergeant said worryingly quickly. Hephisialis and Major Nimroth looked to each other but merely found their mutual ignorance. Karyan was silent for what felt like minutes, maybe two while she thought about that to suggest to the two sergeants.

"Keep on moving and don't touch any technology until either myself or Hephisialis has inspected it. Wait..." Karyan said as suddenly one of the consoles began to beep, its esoteric melody was lost to the vacuum of the universe but the loud visual alarm that it gave off could still be seen."There's a heat spike in sector XII, Level V...water."

"It could be anything; we are dangerously close to a hypergiant...maybe there's a leak in the ship's hull." Major Nimroth offered from his own corner.

"No, if that were the case then we'd be experiencing the effects of radiation...which at this range would be..." Hephisialis countered.

"Death. Sergeants, go down to the water containment facility and find out what's causing that heat. According to sensors theirs only about twenty percent water capacity so it should be completely accessible...my orders still stand, investigate...don't fire at it unless provoked." Karyan said over the subspace radio to the two Sergeants.

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

"How long has it been now?" Commander Trebal asked the Second Captain worryingly who was quietly working at the far of navigation console.

"It's been less than an hour Commander."

"I fear that that was all that is needed for disaster to strike." She countered as she observed the crewmen going about the bridge. The massive open view screen was still covered by the black and red HUD that shielded the bridge crew from the harsh light of the blue hypergiant star and yet subjected the occupants to a darkness that they weren't accustomed to.

"If you keep on worrying like that ma'am, you won't live past 130." Verro said half hazard as suddenly Karyan's voice filtered through the com channels.

"Aurora, this is CMO Karyan, can you hear me? I repeat, Aurora this is CMO Karyan, can you hear..."

"Yes, Karyan we read you positive, save for a slightly hoarse connection...Can I get a status report?"

"Yes ma'am." All over the bridge officers stopped to listen to Karyan's report on the ancient vessel which lay not four hundred miles of off the Aurora's hull. "The ship is as old as it looks, at least fifty million years old. There's barely any power left but except damage to the conduits on the underside of the ship there's no damage at all. I've created a data up load with the Aurora through my suit, so you should be able to get an uplink with the ships systems now" Trebal looked to an officer that stood over the communications console who nodded back at her.

"What about the former crew? Have you found any signs of them yet?" Trebal asked.

"No, but there's a heat signature coming from the ships water storage, I've sent Sergeants Laurentian and Twilingius to investigate. We may find some information there." Karyan said over the hissing and humming of the subspace radio.

"Good...stay in contact and report in every ten minutes except for when you get life support operational then report in straight away." Trebal said.

* * *

The ancient door opened with a shudder while dust and metal scrapings fell to floor, a sure sign that atmosphere and air pressure was slowly returning to the vessel. Laurentian immediately made for the rooms singular console that overlooked a pool of hard, white ice with a huge crack in its centre.

"This is the right place." Laurentian said from the console to Twilingius over the subspace intercom.

"How is that possible? Shouldn't this ice be melting if there's a heat spike?"

"I have no idea, there's barely any sensor data coming through..."Twilingius made his way down to the cracked pool of ice, each step getting slightly louder as slowly more and more pressure air filled the ship. "Twilingius, what are you doing"

"Logically if we're unable to gather sensor data then we should try a visual inspection."

"I don't think.."

"What could happen? This ship is over fifty million years old; anything that has existed that long surely can't be alive."

"I fear that is more of a failure of imagination on your part." Laurentian said as Twilingius took his first steps onto the frozen ice pool. The thick environmental suit clad Lantean bent down on one knee over the crack and looked down into its depths...thermal imaging showed nothing but extreme heat while visual inspections showed nothing but shadow...a darkness.

"What the fu-"Suddenly the great mass of blackness rose out of the ice and engulfed the poor man's face, broke through his armour and cracked his visor. He gurgled and screamed and cursed as _the thing _clawed its way into his body His heart stopped beating and yet he was kept alive by the thing's own energy.

All Laurentian could do is stare from the console in shock and horror...

* * *

Screams filled the suits of the three Lantean's environmental suits as the scene in the decks below unfolded beneath them. Karyan quickly disabled the uplink to Laurentian and Twilingius in her suit while Nimroth and Hephisialis continued to listen for a few more moments before shutting them off themselves. Without thinking she activated the uplink to the Aurora ahead of schedule.

"This is Code-Omega, I repeat code omega...Twilingius and Laurentian are under attack we are evacuating the vessel after and I request immediate firing solution. Do not fire until our gateship has docked with the Aurora. I repeat, Code-Omega!" She abandoned the console, purposefully left the data uplink activated so that the Aurora could download the ship's database and quickly lead the two other Lanteans through the ship in a furious sprint while the more heavily armed Nimroth took up the rear, ready to fire at anything that tried to ambush them.

The ancient vessels corridors were a cris-cross of complexity that could dwarf the mind and the darkness did not help at all. Her heart pounded and her legs ached as the ships gravity stabilised itself, going from normal gravity to slightly heavier to lighter whilst the three Lantean's went through the darkness; broken only by the occasional darkened light that made the dust in the the newly vented atmosphere sparkle.

Finally they came to the hanger bay where the gateship had docked. The bay was still depressurised and the ships systems required that all areas of this section needed to be the same pressure before the airlock could be opened.

"Come on!" Karyan screamed. It felt like seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours.

Suddenly, one of the ancient conduits in the hanger bay lit up like a planetary nursery as more and more energy was trapped, a spark of energy erupted against something else, possibly some sort of mould in the ships superstructure and a great explosion rocked the ship from the inside of the hanger bay, completely destroying the gateship and making it useless.

Karyan, Nimroth and Hephisialis cursed as they saw the remains of their vessel float off into the blackness of space through the now deactivated force shield that once protected the crew from the horrors of decompression. She fell to the floor, uncaring of what might happen...

She looked up from her slump and at the end of the hallway saw a Lantean environmental suit walked towards them slowly, even with the miniscule amount of air in the section it was still possible to hear it's footsteps against the hard floor and wet gelatinous oxygen mix. His head squarely facing the floor.

"Thank the stars, what the abbyssus attacked you Sergeant?" It didn't reply but Karyan assumed that he must be in shock from whatever it was. He still walked towards them slowly to which Major Nimroth was getting irritated, easily understandable in his shocked state.

"Hurry up, before we're attacked again!" He exclaimed. Slowly it raised its head and the full horror set in. Replacing the nature chiselled features of an Alteran face was a swirl of black darkness broken, like a shadow or like a black event horizon of an Astria Porta only by the occasional flash of lighting starred back at them swirled in the suits helmet.

And it was coming towards them.

One Step Closer, Two Steps closer, three...


	4. Chapter 3: Epilogue

OOC: Hopefully this will serve as some sort of ending for this chapter, later episodes may be posted...they might not; it's been a busy six months. I apologise for the lateness, but the reports of my death have been greatly exagerated...mostly exagerated...somewhat exagerated.

Epilogue: nightmares.

Kiana knew immediately something was wrong as soon as she left her quarters. Emmergency power was online and the cool gentle bathing light of the Aurora's standard operating mode had been replaced by the harsh red glow stigma of Red Mode; power must have been lost; the ship couldn't have been attacked she would have been woken up by the ships alarms and there was no sign of an infection; all doors were still operational to the best of her knowledge. She looked to each side and saw nothing in the darkness.

The Lantean Officer slowly backed back into her quarters and sighed a breath of relief as the doors closed in front of her soundly and with a further flick of the wrist she activated the ships internal com-link system.

"This is Second Captain Kiana to the bridge, I repeat this is Kiana, Commander of the Air Group to the bridge can you hear me?" No reply.

Now she began to worry.

She gracefully moved to her desk through the dim red light and with a vulture like claw snatched up her uniforms communicator and pressed it.

"Verro, Its Kiana...Verro...Verry are you there." The Second Captain sobbed into the communicator before finally losing what little control she had "Verro get off your lazy ass and get up!"

Sobbing was mixed with heavy breathing as she threw the small trinium device into the corner of her quarters. She stood there for what seemed like hours as she desperately tried to collect her tempest thoughts. Slowly she bent down and pulled the lower part of her uniform over her legs until the cream trousers covered all but her feet. Once again she bent down and reached under the metal mattress that was standard in all Lantean facilities and pulled out her boots and force pistol.

Without thinking she slipped the boots on and activated the force pistol with her mind. To her delight it glowed the familiar blue of Lantean technology which showed that it was working properly...finally something was.

She brought up all the courage that she could summon and walked out of her quarters once again. This time she didn't dare to look back in case the urge to run back into her quarters. Slowly she walked through the corridor, making sure to stay dead centre in case the ship had been boarded and a group of attackers were lying in wait to ambush survivors.

The ship was cold and her footsteps were light on the ground; not a completely good sign when one considered that artificial gravity and life support were in one subroutine. Something was definitely wrong. She found the corridors control panel and waved her hand over it. She found only horror on the other side.

The corridor had been warped and the plasma conduits were leaking out onto the very deck and the floor was covered by a sickly green liquid but that was not the worst thing; the ship had been ripped in half! The ships emergency power kept the atmosphere from leaking out into the emptiness of dark space but she could clearly make out the constellation of Echthelion on the other side of the force field. She put her hand on the force field and allowed herself a faint smile as the ships energy flowed down her hand; a warning to her to not press any harder.

Suddenly the door behind her slammed shut before Kiana could even move. Like a lion she ran from the edge of the ship towards the door. Trying everything she could, standard waving, unlocking she even resorted to hitting the controls she settled with hitting the (now red) crystal with all the might that she could conjure but even then it would not open.

"Open, you infernal machine!" Kiana exclaimed as she pulled out her force pistol from the brown synthetic leather holster that hung on her hip. She rubbed her thumb up the force pistols curved handle. Her heavy breathing almost drowned out the high weapons high pitched buzzing; a sign that an overload was imminent. She fired the pistol and watched as the blue energy discharge drained into the wall and further through into the ships systems, She bit her bottom lip as instead of changing mode the doors crystal simply died.

System after system died, lights, ventilation, artificial gravity and her heart only raced faster as she heard a low pitched buzz that only signalled the collapse of the shield. Time slowed to a standstill and her heart slowed down to a painful halt as the shield gave way and the compartment in which she floated was exposed to the vacuum.

Nothing.

"I'm alive!" The air didn't rush out of the room. Kiana wasn't killed by imploding cells caused by frozen liquids or by the loss of oxygen. Though she still floated in mid air, was cold and was bathed in darkness she was still alive. "I'm alive..."

She turned around, pushed off the wall and floated over to the edge of the abyss; just managing to stop herself before she fell out of the ship. The feeling of the vicinity around the cold vacuum of space against her hands naked skin was not unlike that of what it felt like to touch wraith flesh, cold and sickly. She pushed her hand forward another inch.

Suddenly the blackness of space wrapped itself around her arm. Kiana tried to struggle against the blackness but it wouldn't release its grasp. With her free hand she tried to grab onto anything in the corridor but she couldn't grasp anything. She was dragged outside.

....

Kiana pulled her eyes open faster than a lightning flash. Her hair was wet with the sweat of fear and she was still out of breath, even as she pulled herself up. Her hand was like a hammer as it hit the light button that was common on bedside cabinets. Now that her quarters were lit up she could see that some of her silk pillow was wet as well. Her hand found itself gliding towards her communication pendant...the same one that she had thrown in her nightmare. She tapped it gently.

"Verro, Verro are you awake?" She spoke softly into the small metal device. On the other end she could hear sheets rustling a horse like cough.

"Kiana its two in the morning and I've got a shift in three hours. Did you crash the ship again?"

"Eurrgh...Verro I had that dream again. You know the one that I've had every night since the survivors were evacuated from that Ancient Alteran ship?"

"The one where you get dragged into space by a black hand? The one that's kept you up for three weeks? Yes I believe there is a page about it in the Atlantis archives. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Talk to me." She pleaded.

"No, go back to sleep Kiana." He replied over the comm. Link to a fully awake Kiana. She settled back into bed but before she could grab a pad to read she was surprised by Verro's voice.

"Mess hall Epsilon; ten minutes."


End file.
